


To the Clouds

by lastdecembers



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, WONSHUA
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2019-06-10 01:01:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15280140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastdecembers/pseuds/lastdecembers
Summary: Joshua Hong, an American engineering student suddenly decides to join an exchange program and finds himself in Seoul.Jeon Wonwoo, a literature teacher to be feels like something is missing.





	1. Chapter 1

"This is going to be one hell of a year!" Joshua exhaled as he was carrying his bags to the 5th floor himself, since the elevator was broken.

"You better get used to this!" the long haired boy chuckled while making his blonde hair into a bun.

"Don't worry though, we have a fan so it's not too hot in here"

Joshua knew all of these since he saw the house beforehand. This was the place he was going to spend his year as an exchange student, of course, if any kind of disaster didn't happen.

After this, he was done carrying his stuff. The other boy, named Jeonghan, appeared with a glass of cold water in his hand. He knocked the door nevertheless and Joshua greeted him.

"Let's go to the living room" the long haired one suggested.

Only when he sat down on the couch, could Joshua understand how tiring the day had been.

"Welcome to our house! Well, now it's your house too. Seungcheol should be here any minute, i know we already met but I want to have our first official talk as housemates." Jeonghan said enthusiastically. Joshua felt a part of his tiredness drift away, this guy was very positive and that was exactly what he needed right now.

It wasn't easy for Joshua to leave his house and go to another country for an exchange program. Joshua was born in Los Angeles to Korean parents. He had been to South Korea once to visit some distant relatives. He was almost fluent in Korean but he had some problems with pronunciation and reading.

The hardest part wasn't the different culture or the language. He had an unbreakable bond with his mom and they barely had any days where they didn't see each other. The matters were even more difficult for his mom since Joshua was an only child.

Thoughts were crossing his mind as his fingers were tapping on the now empty glass.

Jeonghan smiled, it was going to be interesting for him to have a housemate he just recently met and that grew up in a different country. Seungcheol and he had been close friends since the freshman year of highschool.

"So Jeonghan..." Joshua broke the silence, he cleared his throat and continued, he was trying to pronounce the words correctly, "Tell me about yourself again... Your major, your thoughts on it and the school, your life, friends and family..."

Jeonghan nodded, he took a sip from his water, the boy was so full of energy, yet so calm.

"I am a philosophy major, I love reading about philosophy and psychology. I wish I knew English enough to practice with you but i don't know any." He suddenly looked up and his face brightened, "But I am planning to learn French. I know that English is important for communicating with many people and reading articles but French is more appealing to me." He smiled again

"I wish I could help you with that" Joshua chuckled "But other than Korean, I just know English and to some extent, Spanish."

"You're like trilingual, I still envy you." Jeonghan pouted and continued talking, "I have a sister, I'm so protective of her if I must say. My family lives in the other side of Seoul so I visit them quite often, if you miss homemade food, you're welcomed to be our guest."

"Thank you" Joshua nodded and just then, the bell rang. 

"It must be Seungcheol." Jeonghan jumped from his couch and ran to the door. 

A few seconds later, the two boys entered the room. Seungcheol hugged Joshua warmly and asked him if he needed anything.

"What had you been up to?" Jeonghan asked Seungcheol with a smirk

"Stop with that face!" Seungcheol started laughing

"I'm not seeing anyone and I've been on my phone often because I'm hooked upon this game"

"Whatever!" Jeonghan put his hands up with an innocent look on his face and Joshua started laughing at them.

"Let's get pizza and beer to celebrate Joshua moving in!" Jeonghan exclaimed and the other boys agreed.

\-------

Wonwoo didn't go out that night despite his friend Soonyoung asking him to. Soonyoung was actually a friend of his friend, Chan but they soon grew close.

Soonyoung has always been lively. Wonwoo has been more of a calm person, he was cheerful around the people he felt comfortable with but sometimes, he needed his own space. It wasn't one of those nights, he just didn't feel like going out. Soonyoung knew that well so he dropped by Wonwoo's apartment.

"Sorry for inviting myself AGAIN" He emphasized the 'again' part, making Wonwoo chuckle

"Cut it, I know you aren't" he hugged his friend

"Well, maybe you're right" Soonyoung started to laugh and they went to Wonwoo's living room. After an hour of playing on Playstation, Soonyoung gave up

"I'm hungry... Let's see what our teacher Jeon has"

They set the table together and had a chat while Wonwoo was warming up the leftover spaghetti. 

"Do you know who you will have in your classes out of those junior students we met last year?" Soonyoung asked enthusiastically

Wonwoo hummed and squinted his eyes, "Jeonghan hyung I think... He was interested in teaching so it's possible for us to have mutual classes" He was now serving the spaghetti

"Jeonghan hyung... He's going to be throwing a party soon because an American exchange student moved in their vacant room"

Wonwoo didn't seem interested, "How do you know all these? He was in my class..."

"Don't underestimate your friend" Soonyoung touched his shoulder. They both bursted out laughters and ate their food, mostly Soonyoung giving the latest gossips.

"Medicine students are cool." Wonwoo thought. He did have friends in his own department, he was going to be a literature teacher and he was interested in the profession but something was missing. He looked outside the window, it was now raining.

"Call Mrs Kwon, stay here tonight"

"Really? Thank you!" Soonyoung clapped and dialed the number.

They went tired to their beds after another round of Playstation. Wonwoo opened a random page of his notes from the books he liked. He smiled at what he saw, this eased the lonely feeling in his heart

To wisely live your life, you don't need to know much  
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:  
You better starve, than eat whatever  
And better be alone, than with whoever.

Omar Khayyam


	2. Chapter 2

Joshua woke up early on Sunday. He hummed as he was making his bed "Sunday morning rain is falling" He looked outside the window and smiled. The weather didn't fit the song quite well, the sun was shining and there were a few clouds here and there. He saw that Seungcheol and Jeonghan's doors were closed so he silently went to the kitchen and ate his cereal. He tried to read the box but he was frustrated because he never learned Hangul in his life until recently so he decided to buy some books to practice.

He wore a black track suit and a dark green tshirt. He took a look at his appearance on the mirror, he didn't look too tired after a hectic week of moving to the other side of the world.

There were the last traces of summer around, the leaves were starting to change colors and there was a morning breeze. Joshua inhaled the air and continued to walk to the book store he saw two days ago.

He hoped everything was going to be alright. He absolutely hated being around so many strangers, yet he took the opportunity to study abroad for a year. He knew no one here except for a few relatives and they weren't going to be around him. On top of that, Jeonghan revealed his plan of throwing a party for him, which he was never informed of. He could only thank the boy, even though he wasn't that big of a fan of parties. He tried to see something bright in the situation. How similar were the parties in Seoul and LA?

When Joshua entered the bookstore, he was welcomed by newspapers standing in the entrance. He tried to read what's written on their titles but it was taking him a long while and he didn't know some words, or couldn't figure them out.

"This is frustrating" he whispered to himself in English, only then did he realize someone was standing next to him.

"Can I help you?" the stranger asked him in English with a clear but slight accent

"Thank you, I'm just not that good in Korean and I'm quite disappointed to find that out."

The other boy smiled, "Finding it out huh?"

Joshua laughed, "Yeah, since I was born in the US and lived there for all my life until now, I didn't get to realize how much my Korean skills lacked."

"Don't sweat it." the boy shrugged "You will figure it out..." He looked away for a few seconds.

"Hansol" he gestured

"Joshua"

Hansol had a pretty appearance, he had blondish brown wavy hair and he was wearing shorts with a white tshirt.

"What brings you to Korea?" Hansol seemed interested

"I am an exchange student, I'll be studying at the university around here" Joshua was happy to finally have found someone to speak in English 

"Holy crap that's amazing dude, I'll be starting to study there this fall" Hansol exclaimed. He grabbed Joshua's phone from his hand.

"Unlock this bro. Okay now, this is my number, okay I'm the only Hansol not surprisingly, alright let's meet up sometime and..." he was out of breath "And you practice English with me, i help you with reading Hangul and learning new words"

"But dude your English is already really good--"

"You wouldn't know how difficult some stuff are for me but anyways back to the topic, let's find you some books to help you to learn Korean better" Hansol started walking to one of the aisles and Joshua followed him.

"Good morning Wonwoo hyung!" Hansol was happy to see the employee

"Good morning, what brings you here so early?" Wonwoo pushed his glasses up

"A horrible hangover" Hansol gestured his hand towards his head to tell how horrible his headache was, Wonwoo started to laugh

"Typical Hansol"

"Don't even tell me! Anyways, I'm looking for a Korean book for this American friend"

Wonwoo scratched his head, "Oh hi... Welcome to Korea" he said in English, trying to sound confident.

Joshua smiled at the younger's effort, "Hello, I can actually speak Korean, I just need to learn the alphabet better and..." He switched to English "Hansol, what's 'idiom' in Korean?"

Hansol started explaining it to Wonwoo in Korean. Joshua took a look at the new boy. He had a unique beauty but he seemed rather insecure. He probably doesn't even know that, he thought. Wonwoo was one of the most beautiful men he saw and something was telling him that he was fun to hang out with. At least now he knew where he worked so he could come back to talk to him. 

"What now Joshua, you're new in here and you don't know this guy" He thought to himself but there was something that was appealing about Wonwoo.

Thousands of thoughts were running through his mind when he realized Hansol and Wonwoo were moving to another aisle. He ran after them and found Wonwoo showing Hansol a few books.

Wonwoo turned around to face Joshua and at that moment, Joshua felt his stomach squirming.

"This book should help you to practice Hangul. To become faster in reading, don't hesitate to read anything, it can be books, newspapers, billboards or even cereal packets" His last example made Joshua smile when he remembered his breakfast.

"And to become more fluent in Korean, I can recommend you some short books to read, you'll definitely expand your vocabulary."

Wonwoo showed Joshua some books and Joshua picked the ones which seemed more interesting.

"This is one of my favorites" Wonwoo smiled widely, pointing to one of the books. "It made me cry" he said, probably slipped out of his mouth, Joshua thought because he immediately got red.  

"It's amazing how art can leave effects on you, these are the most beautiful tears." Joshua said, making Wonwoo look up and smile. 

"Why is he so fucking adorable?" Joshua thought, this boy was taking over every corner of his mind, "Does Seungcheol and Jeonghan know Hansol and Wonwoo?" hoping that they did. 

He really hoped they'd know Wonwoo, it wasn't so difficult to reach out to Hansol since he was quite sociable and gave Joshua his number right away but Wonwoo seemed rather shy and the only thing Joshua knew about him was where he worked. 

After paying for the books he walked with Hansol a bit, until they had to go separate ways to go to their houses

"So I was born in New York, I moved to Korea when I was 5 so I don't remember much from there. I can say I'm culturally more Korean." Hansol said and after a few seconds of silence he continued "Since we were speaking English, I dropped the honorifics without noticing, sorry if you care about that" 

"I don't mind that at all, actually I need some American stuff right here because everything's so different from what I've been used to" Joshua said, a smile formed on his face, it was so cute how Hansol cared about this. 

"Would you like to attend a party thrown for me moving in, next Friday" He finally asked

"Thank you for inviting me and i love parties so I will definitely come by!" Hansol clapped and skipped

"Great, I will send you the details through text" 

"Invite Wonwoo too" Hansol said suddenly and Joshua was dumbfounded 

"But would it be appropriate--" 

Hansol furrowed his eyebrows, "What do you mean by that? You just met me half an hour ago too" 

"But we did talk much more than i did with Wonwoo" Joshua protested

"Come on dude! Wonwoo is not a guy that easily gets warmed up to people, especially to a customer, let alone his own friends to be... And he shared his thoughts on books with you--" 

"Duh? He's a salesperson in a bookstore and I was looking for a book?" 

Hansol swung his hand, "I don't mean that and you know what I mean, you can't fool me." He sighed "Wonwoo never lets others know about his emotions, he's like..." he stopped to think, caressing his chin with his hand "Like a wall?" 

"Hey!" Joshua sounded offended 

"I said what I said, you better have asked him out by the time I text you" Hansol looked behind his shoulder as they were going separate ways now. 

Joshua really didn't need that. He didn't need to show such affection to someone, whenever he did, it ended up being devastating, he didn't need to be used by someone. "Wonwoo wouldn't do that. But how, Joshua, you barely even know him." 

He wanted to run back to the bookstore and invite Wonwoo to the party "but that would be odd, right?" he thought.

With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Joshua sighed and went into his house. Jeonghan greeted him while preparing breakfast for the three of them.

Joshua told everything quickly. He was trembling and he had no idea why, he had no idea why he told all these to someone who was almost a stranger to him. He had no idea why he felt such intense feelings right now. He had no idea why tears formed in his eyes.

Jeonghan touched Joshua's shoulders, "It's just a party, invite him and you won't lose anything. Also, he's quiet but nice, I know him from one of my classes. He'd share all his notes and we had coffee together once."

Joshua got up and left Jeonghan clueless. He ran and ran to the bookstore, he still had no idea why he was doing any of these.

Why did he feel that way? Who is Wonwoo? Why didn't he invite him right away in the first place? 

There the bookstore was, although he was running this time, it felt like a longer way. 

"Hi Wonwoo" he was out of breath

"Hi there, did you forget something here?" Wonwoo looked surprised 

"No, I-- do you like parties?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Joshua is living fast yolo


	3. Chapter 3

Parties? Should he tell the truth? 

"It depends" he prefered to stay neutral. 

"I just wanted to invite you to my welcoming party. Jeonghan organized it, he's from one of your classes." Joshua stopped suddenly, he got mad at himself for saying that, "Fuck, how am I supposed to know this, i look like a stalker now" 

"I mean, I told him i met new people and when i said your names, he said he already knows you" Joshua wanted to get lost. 

On the other hand, Wonwoo didn't expect anything like that. He didn't expect the American boy to come back to the bookstore just to talk to him. He didn't expect anyone to invite him to a party. He only ever went to a party to drive his drunk friends once.

"Thank you" he pursed his lips "I would like to come but..." He had to find a valid excuse. He hated parties even though he had never been invited to one. "I will try to" he took a deep breath.

"It will be great! Jeonghan looks like a good party planner, also Hansol will be there."

"Jeonghan hyung is a good planner indeed." Wonwoo nodded. Jeonghan absolutely loved parties. He had flashbacks to the only party he had ever been to, which was last New Year's eve.

He arrived to the party he wasn't invited to late.

"You're my savior, Wonu!!" Drunk Soonyoung placed a kiss on his cheek.

When he went into the living room, he saw people making out, throwing up or smoking their lungs out, which was quite an unpleasant view for him. He decided to spend some time in the room at back instead but when he entered the room, he saw Jeonghan getting things on with a girl he knew from one of his classes. His last resort was the kitchen, he just watched everyone coming in to get more drinks. He wish he had fun like those people but all these seemed boring to him, he did like to drink but getting drunk without a reason... Not his type.

He wondered what type of drunk this American guy was. He had a name right? He didn't even know his name but this guy was the first one to invite him to a party.

"So, your name?"

"Joshua, I'm sorry for not telling beforehand" Joshua was disappointed in himself, how could he skip that and just invite him directly.

"No problem." Wonwoo placed the books on the shelf.

Joshua took a deep breath, should he do it now? Obviously he should. He invited him to a party at the end of the day.

"Can I, uh, I get your number? To send the details about the party."

Wonwoo shrugged, "Of course" and they exchanged numbers.

When Joshua got out of the bookstore he felt that the world was spinning around him. He closed his eyes for a moment and leaned against the wall, why did he have to be so awkward? He probably freaked Wonwoo out. Most importantly... Why did he care? Why did a boy he met 2 hours ago leave such a big impact on him?

He walked to his apartment without feeling anything. Jeonghan was waiting for him curiously,

"Joshua-"

"I need to sleep" Joshua rushed to his room

Jeonghan couldn't say anything but he couldn't help feeling bad for the boy. Just at the moment Seungcheol came into the kitchen to have his breakfast, more like lunch.

"What happened between you two?" he furrowed his eyebrows while looking inside the fridge

"Nothing, he's just so anxious and i don't know how to help him" Jeonghan sighed

Seungcheol shrugged, "He will be fine, it's his first time being away from his house"

Meanwhile Joshua was lying in his bed, not being able to think anything else but how he screwed things up with Wonwoo.

"Who is Wonwoo?" he asked himself for the thousandth time in the day. This was not the first time Joshua was feeling special things for someone. He even had been in a relationship which ended over a year ago. The aftermath had not been easy for him and as he later on noticed, the relationship itself wasn't healthy either. Joshua's entire life was based on his girlfriend's needs and preferences. He constantly felt like he wasn't good for his lover since she was never content with whatever he did.

"It was never us" he murmured, "it was her and her boyfriend, me"

He was also terrified of falling for someone again. He knew how vulnerable he was and how easy it was to use him, he vowed himself to never let anyone else do this to him again but he knew his personality wasn't like that and he would be fooled. He sighed. Suddenly, he woke up from his thoughts and listened to Seungcheol and Jeonghan having a conversation.

"So you're saying you're just hanging out with her." Jeonghan said in a sarcastic tone

"I said what i said" Seungcheol didn't seem to care.

"You never know, I was saying I was just hanging out with a girl too and then we had sex on this Mingyu guy's couch then we dated and..." he went silent after that so Joshua assumed they had broken up. Jeonghan didn't seem like a guy that would be hung up on a past relationship deeply, he was cheerful and reckless but Joshua thought that he shouldn't judge anyone so quickly. He was even more surprised to hear Jeonghan's sobs and Seungcheol's comforting words.

He wanted to go to the kitchen and talk with them about everything but he barely knew them. Plus, would Jeonghan be comfortable if Joshua saw him crying? He decided it would be better to stay in. A few moments later, he was actually asleep.

It was 9 pm when Joshua woke up again. How did he manage to sleep that much? His stomach was hurting from hunger so went to the kitchen and started preparing dinner. He wa so focused on cooking that he didn't notice Seungcheol came in.

"Someone loves sleeping" he said

Joshua chuckled, "I like sleeping life stuff away" 

They didn't talk much, Joshua grabbed his plate to eat his dinner while watching tv shows and on his way back to his room, Joshua saw Jeonghan lying on his bed, scrolling through his phone. He was wearing a gray hoodie, his eyes were red and his hair was scattered around his pillow. When their eyes met, Joshua felt awkward.

"Hi, I made boiled eggs and fried vegetables, do you want some?" 

Jeonghan shook his head, his eyes closed, "No, thank you, I will sleep in a bit." his voice was deeper than usual. 

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight Shua"

He was happy to hear his housemate calling him Shua. Maybe he was bonding with him some kind? Recently, he was feeling alone but bonding friendships with his housemates could help him.

"Seungcheol, do you want to watch American series with me?"

"Yes!" the boy answered as if he had been waiting for this. He quickly took a can of Cola from the fridge and followed Joshua. They watched a few episodes of Brooklyn 99 together, then went to sleep.

The next day was Joshua's first day in university.  He was humming to California by Blink 182 while making his bed, not because he was homesick, he just liked the song. He wore jeans and a white shirt and made himself some coffee to take to the school. 

His first class was Heat Transfer, which he didn't hear good things about in his school. It was deadly, but he was happy to focus on something else and forget about yesterday. After his conversation with Hansol, this was the first time he heard someone speak English with him. He was glad his classes weren't in Korean, he probably wouldn't be able to understand anything. Speaking of Hansol, he didn't let him know about what happened. A side of him wanted to share everything but they just met and he didn't feel comfortable when he remembered that, even though the boy seemed trustworthy. After his classes, he went to grab lunch. He had was waiting for his turn in the queue when the boy next to him started shouting, 

"Minghao!!" He kept on yelling in Chinese, thankfully the Minghao boy heard him and came by then ordered for the other boy

Minghao didn't leave while Joshua was ordering his food, he switched to Korean again and spoke to Joshua

"I'm sorry, my friend is an exchange student and he feels uneasy to speak Korean, he's more comfortable with English" 

Joshua responded, feeling somewhat happy "It's okay, I'm more comfortable with English too!" 

"Cool!" Minghao looked around "Hey, why don't you come to our table after you get your food, we're right there." he showed their table.

Joshua was happy he wasn't going to eat alone on his first day. He went to the boys' table.

"Let us introduce ourselves" Minghao said in English. "I'm Minghao, I'll be studying in this university for the next four years. I'm a linguistics major."

"And I'm Junhui, you can also call me Jun. I'm a second year exchange student. We're both from China."

"Sorry, I forgot to say that" Minghao said. 

Joshua was happy to find other people like him.

"Nice to meet you guys." He took a sip from his water. "I'm Joshua, a junior and I'm an exchange student from the US. My parents are Korean so I know the language."

Minghao started laughing, "Do you know who else speaks Korean? Jun!" 

"It's a bit hard for me to speak but i can understand it to some extent" Junhui confirmed. 

They were laughing and chatting just when Joshua saw a familiar face, it was Hansol. They greeted each other

"Dude, were you scared to text me after what I said?" Hansol said, smiling

Joshua fixed his posture, "Actually, I invited him in an hour." 

"Wow, my impact!" he said proudly

Junhui and Minghao had no idea what they were talking about and they were curious. Junhui was too shy to ask but Minghao didn't hide his curiosity. 

"I'm a bit shy so I can't invite people somewhere easily." Joshua wanted to hide the actual reason. 

"I understand." Minghao nodded

"But you guys can join my party this Friday!" Joshua said, it was somehow way easier to invite these boys than Wonwoo. 

"We would love to" they said in unision. 

Joshua was happy he could bond with new people. After all, it wasn't going too bad, he was worried he would have no one to talk with but he already made friends on his first day. 

The moment he looked away, he felt like his heart stopped beating. There Wonwoo was, with a tall handsome guy and a petite high with long hair. They all seemed perfect. They were probably all friends but Joshua couldn't help his heart aching. 

What was he doing? His mind was never working the way it should be when he saw that boy. He was walking towards them. Their eyes locked and Wonwoo's smile faded

"Hi Wonwoo!" his voice was shaky, his hands were shaking too

"Hello there Joshua." Wonwoo's lips curled up. They are pink, plump and beautiful, Joshua thought. They would feel great to kiss, too.

"So, have you thought about the party?" Joshua could faint at that moment. Why did he ask Wonwoo face to face when he could've just texted him?

"I'm still..." Wonwoo scratched his head "... Thinking."

"What's that party i don't know of?" Mingyu put his arm on Wonwoo's shoulder and Joshua felt a lump in his throat.

"Jeonghan hyung must have told you about it, for their exchange student housemate."

Mingyu squinted, he is trying to remember out of tens of parties he's invited to, Joshua thought.

"Ah yes, I'm coming too."

I don't remember inviting you, Joshua said in his mind but that was planned by Jeonghan.

The other girl's face was full white, she seemed bothered by something. Was she bothered by him? He felt sorry for the girl, maybe she didn't like parties and this whole thing could make her feel bad. However, there was no turn backs. Joshua said to himself, it's now or never.

"Wonwoo, I specifically would love to see you there. Please come to MY party."

A smile formed on Wonwoo's face. Joshua couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or he was happy. The only thing he could tell was his own feelings, he was anxious and he had to leave. 

"Excuse me, I have a class" he rushed to his table and ate his food faster than he ever did, without talking. Junhui, Minghao and Hansol were terrified and confused, Hansol was now sure he was somehow involved in this love maze and he had to help these lost cases. 

Wonwoo held back his tears while smiling...


	4. Chapter 4

Wonwoo didn't hate crying. What he hated was doing it in front of others. He didn't like sharing his feelings with others and crying in front of others meant doing so. Instead, he blinked quickly and fought his newly forming tears.

What was the reason for these tears? He didn't want to think on that but he couldn't help admitting he felt special for the first time in his life. No one made him feel like he's unique and important, except for his friends before they wanted something from him. Wonwoo believed in their sincerity but he wished they showed their appreciation for him nevertheless. He opened his literature notebook that he kept notes from the pieces he liked. At the second half of the notebook, there was the part where he wrote his own poems, sayings and essays. He grabbed his pen and wrote:

"There are times when you'll shed tears: it's just a proof that we're humans."

He closed his eyes and leaned back. He hadn't felt this happy in such a long time... 

When Joshua came back home, he found Jeonghan reading a book. He looked way better than he did yesterday, no signs of crying for hours at least. 

"Welcome Shua!" he looked up from his book. 

"Hello Jeonghan!" Joshua greeted him back. 

Jeonghan put his book down and cracked a grin. 

"You're not going anywhere, you have stuff to explain to me." he pointed at the couch in front of him. Joshua sighed, he had to tell it all because this guy didn't seem like someone who would believe in lies. He attempted to change the subject instead

"Hey, don't you have classes?" he protested

"Not if i ditch them." He shook his head sideways and his long blonde hair moved beautifully in the air. "You can't fool me, now tell it what's with this Wonwoo guy."

Joshua sat down, and looked outside the window. The sun was shining, there were tiny birds singing and flying around the cherry tree. He loved this time of the year. 

"I would like to talk more with him. He looks like someone I can get along well with." 

Jeonghan was surprisingly satisfied with the answer. He nodded and took a sip from his coffee and a bite from the cupcake. 

"I bought cupcakes, if you want some, they're in the fridge." He cleared his throat "So I assume you have talked with him."

"Yes, I invited him to the party." Joshua stared at the carpet, he didn't feel like looking at the other boy's face. 

"That's great but if you want to talk with him more often, a party is not ideal."

Joshua was confused and that could be understood from his face. Jeonghan took another sip from his cup. 

"What I mean is, parties are amazing but show him that you want to hang out. Invite him somewhere, so you two can be alone."

"Now?" 

"Well, that's up to you" he pushed his hair behind his ears. "I'm saying this because you don't seem like you would initiate something as long as someone wouldn't push you and I'm doing the work."

Joshua wondered if Jeonghan understood that he has a crush on Wonwoo. He named it after lunch, because his crush was pretty obvious to himself, he hoped it wasn't to others, especially to Wonwoo, he was not ready for that yet. 

After he went to his room, he smiled. 

"I have a crush now... Something to look forward to." he told himself. 

The week passed by quickly, mainly him going to classes and hanging out with his housemates. At school he met up with Hansol, Junhui and Minghao during lunch breaks. He was happy that he had a group of friends so quickly and he could speak in English with them because talking in Korean all the time made him tired. 

On Thursday night, Joshua texted Wonwoo

\- Hey are you coming to the party tomorrow? :) 

It took Wonwoo half an hour to reply, which felt like an eternity to Joshua

\- Yeah, I guess

He smiled at his phone so widely that he was glad neither Seungcheol or Jeonghan were around 

\- See you tomorrow then :) 

\- See you

This small conversation made Joshua happy enough for him prepare dinner for his housemates. He prepared Korean dishes, which made the boys extremely happy, 

"Shua is an amazing cook" Seungcheol said happily and Jeonghan did a thumbs up. Joshua was glad to see his cooking was appreciated. He learned a lot from his mother. What dishes did Wonwoo like? 

"I should definitely ask him about food" Joshua thought to himself. 

After the dinner, he went to his room and started picking outfits for tomorrow's party. He picked baggy ripped jeans and a striped shirt. He took a mirror selfie and sent it to the group chat he had with Minghao, Jun and Hansol. 

Shua1230: How's this for the party guys? 

Jun_cat: i like it :) 

Minghao8: I like it but you can wear a more casual shirt. 

Chwe_Hansol: The jeans are sick bro!!! I agree with Hao. 

Joshua looked through his clothes in the wardrobe and he found a purple baggy shirt with black star prints on it. He liked how it looked on him and sent it to his groupchat

Minghao8: that's what I'm talking about bro!!!

Jun_cat: that's amazing

Jun_cat: i want the same shirt

Chwe_Hansol: YEs

He knocked Jeonghan's door, knowing both of the boys were playing a football game on console.

"How do you like this guys? For the party tomorrow."

Jeonghan nodded and Seungcheol whistled.

"Wonwoo will absolutely love this." Jeonghan slipped it out of his mouth.

Joshua felt like he fell into cold water. He started trembling.

"I-I'm sorry Shua i didn't mean to say that" Jeonghan murmured.

Joshua smiled, with teardrops falling down his cheeks.

"It's okay because I wanted to say that. I'm not good with keeping my feelings to myself but everything escalated so quickly that I hesitated." he broke down in sobs.

Jeonghan hugged him and Seungcheol was the biggest spoon. They squeezed Joshua as his body was still shaking with sobs of emotions. 

"You look like you're sorry Jeonghan, please don't feel bad." Joshua said, wiping his eyes. "I wanted to say it anyway." 

That night, the boys felt closer to each other. Jeonghan wanted to talk about his recent heartbreak but he wasn't ready to face it so he left it to another time. 

Next morning, Joshua woke up excited, the day passed by just like any other day of the week did. When he was back home, he found Seungcheol putting drinks and chips on the table. 

"Someone is hyped." he said, smiling 

"Yes, I will do my best to be a good host" Seungcheol said firmly

"Just say you're looking for excuses to drink more!" Jeonghan shouted from the other room. A few hours in and people started arriving.

"Seunghee ah welcome!" Jeonghan hugged the girl and she came in. 

"Wow this is the first time your house is this neat" Seunghee said in surprise 

Seungcheol interfered "Excuse me! I shed blood, sweat and tears to keep this house clean" 

Seunghee shrugged and the door bell rang again.   
A handsome guy with hair combed back came in and greeted Joshua immediately. 

"I'm so sorry, I should've visited you earlier but I was out own town for a business trip and I came here last night so I slept in. I'm Yongguk." They were all having fun and chatting as more guests arrived. 

Junhui and Minghao brought Chinese drinks they bought from a Chinese shop nearby and Hansol brought beers. Wonwoo was still nowhere to be seen. 

"Don't sweat it dude, he told you he'll be coming."  
Hansol tried to soothe Joshua's atmosphere

"I'm just tired Hansol, i don't know what you're talking about" Joshua lied but thankfully Hansol was distracted 

"Oh, my housemate is here, i didn't know he'd come here." Hansol shrugged and took a sip from his beer. 

"How do you not know what your housemate is up to?" 

"Well, we've been friends since middle school but we don't talk that much. We just have different lifestyles and friends I guess." he looked away and shouted "Seungkwan!!!" and when the other boy looked back, he waved. 

Everyone in the room suddenly started making noises of welcoming and admiration. Joshua looked at the door and saw the tall guy who was with Wonwoo the other day. 

"KIM MINGYU IS HERE" 

"Welcome dude" 

"Come drink with us"

"You promised to drink with me"

The guy was indeed popular and friends with Wonwoo. That made Joshua's stomach squirm. He felt like fainting when he saw a few guys and Wonwoo following Mingyu.

"Hansol, where are Junhui and Minghao? Do I look good?" his voice was shaky

"Bro, you look awesome, just chill out and go talk to him."

Joshua walked through the crowd, said hi to a few people and finally reached out to Wonwoo.

"H-hi Wonwoo, thank you for coming" they hugged.

"Thank you for inviting me." Wonwoo said emotionlessly.

"So this is the party boy." A boy with a wide smile greeted Joshua. "I'm Seokmin, medicine 2nd year. This is Soonyoung, medicine 3rd year." After a small chat of introducing each other, Soonyoung and Seokmin walked towards their other friends from medicine department. Joshua was so relieved, he was finally going to be alone with Wonwoo, though in a room full of people.

"What do you wanna drink?"

Wonwoo thought about it for a second, "Root beer" he replied.

Joshua got them drinks and potato chips. They sat down, Wonwoo was gazing at people.

"What was your major again?" Joshua asked

"Literature... I will be a teacher. What about you?"

Joshua nodded, "Interesting indeed, i am studying mechanical engineering."

"So you wanted to bond with Korea?"

"Kind of yeah... I'm so glad to have come here, I have already met cool people" Joshua took a sip from his drink. Wonwoo wondered if he was one of those cool people. Nobody called him cool before so he assumed he wasn't. 

Joshua took a look around. Inseparable Minghao and Junhui were now not together, Minghao was with Hansol and his housemate and Junhui was with Mingyu. Why was this Mingyu guy with Junhui who didn't even look up when he arrived?

"Your friends are like thise popular people around here right?" Joshua bit his tongue, getting angry at himself

"Soonyoung and Seokmin are the gag trio along with Seungkwan." 

Hansol's housemate?

"And Mingyu is, you know, Mingyu"

Joshua understood what he meant. 

"You're not drinking or eating much, Wonwoo"

Wonwoo looked at the ceiling, "I have a weak stomach, I don't eat a lot at a go."

Joshua just wanted to hug him already.

"This party is thrown for you and you're wasting your time with me." Wonwoo said suddenly

"I'm not wasting my time. I'm doing exactly what I wanted to." Joshua said quite aggressively and Wonwoo's ears were red. Why did this boy hate himself?

"If you say so..." Wonwoo took a huge sip from his drink. 

"I-i don't speak Korean well" Junhui told the guy that was trying to start a conversation with him. 

"Then you can practice with me. I'm Mingyu." he smiled. 

"I'm Junhui. I'm Chinese and a 2nd year student." He wanted to disappear, Korean was so difficult for him. 

"My major is teaching, for elementary students but I can help you with Korean, trust me." He downed the entirity of vodka he had. 

Junhui slowly tried to understand the sentence. He asked the word that was 'elementary' and Mingyu explained shortly. Junhui was smiling wide

"You're good at explaining"

Mingyu was flustered. 

Seungcheol was glad Seunghee came. Every drink Jeonghan downed, made him remember his ex girlfriend and he kept yelling and crying. Seunghee was there to take care of him, they had been friends since birth. She was born just a few days after Jeonghan. As reckless as Jeonghan was, Seunghee was careful and she knew what to do in what situation. 

"What would I do without you Seunghee?" Jeonghan giggled. 

"You'd live." She said while putting water on Jeonghan's temples. 

"I'd die." Jeonghan laughed loudly "Thank you bff."

"You're embarrassing, stop this." she yelled. 

Everyone was having the time of their lives, drinking, eating and dancing. Joshua wondered if they were all close like this or it was just living the moment. He knew the answer. 

"Are you doing anything tomorrow, Wonwoo?" 

"Work as usual. I need to go to somewhere at night." Joshua wondered who he was going to meet up with but he hesitated to ask. 

"So you have no free time." he said disappointed. 

"I do, between 4 and 7 pm." Wonwoo was looking at the carpet. 

"Let's meet up then." Joshua's heart was beating fast. 

"Alright." Wonwoo nodded. 

Joshua pulled out his phone. 

Shua1230: GuyS GUESS WHO HAS A DATE? 

Jun_cat: Guess who just made out with the hottest guy?


	5. Chapter 5

Joshua looked around when he saw Junhui's message. He was nowhere to be seen.

Minghao8: Jun, you didn't leave China for this.

Shua1230: I can't find him.

For the rest of the night, everyone had fun. Jeonghan wasn't crying anymore, Joshua met new people, Hansol was doing fine even though he argued with his housemate for no apparent reason. He had no idea why Seungkwan had been acting like this lately but he didn't think a lot on that.

Joshua and Wonwoo gazed at the sky for a few minutes, they hadn't planned that. It was a coincidence, after they went to hang out with different people, Joshua was feeling tipsy and Wonwoo needed some fresh air. The sky was clear and there was a night breeze. Joshua wanted to snuggle with Wonwoo but of course they kept their distance and just watched the stars.

"What type of music do you listen?" Joshua asked

"Anything, really but mostly rap and Korean traditional music."

Quite diverse, Joshua thought. They didn't talk much and Junhui appeared out of nowhere, hugged Joshua and screamed that he was in love so he had to deal with that.

"Jun, you just met that guy, you can't be in love with him!" Minghao shook Junhui from his shoulders and Joshua agreed, ironically he named his crush on Wonwoo the day after he met him. Hansol was definitely very drunk because he was laughing at everything

"Who is that guy anyway?" Minghao furrowed his eyebrows

Junhui giggled and replied "Mingyu"

"Holy shit man, no way" Joshua was very surprised to hear that his friend made out with the most popular guy of the university. More importantly before he did with Wonwoo, his friend had an affair with Wonwoo's friend. 

The party went on till early morning and some of the guests stayed in. Seunghee and a few other girls slept on the couch, Hansol refused to go to his house so he slept in Joshua's room. It was 12 pm when they woke up. 

Joshua started going through the clothes in his wardrobe without caring too much about Hansol sleeping. Eventually, the younger woke up. 

"What gives you such energy in the morning?" he said with a deep cracking voice

"It's noon, Hansol" 

"Whatever" Hansol turned to his other side and closed his eyes

"Hey, call your housemate and fix things!" Joshua pulled the blanket away from Hansol

"Maybe he should stop being annoying and apologize to me for making a big deal out of everything?" he pulled his blanket and sat on the bed "He hangs out with popular fake ass dipshits all the time and scolds me when I have my own life."

"Oh God you two are really like a couple." 

"Take that back!" Hansol threw his pillow at Joshua and the latter one started laughing. "You're so grumpy in the mornings!" 

"Sorry i am grumpy because i don't have a date to be excited over!" 

Hearing this made Joshua smile, even though this had been the only thing on his mind ever since Wonwoo accepted going out. 

"Okay so... Let's dress me up for the date" He said enthusiastically. 

It was really difficult for Joshua to find something that he thinks was perfect for a date. However, he came to the realization that Wonwoo never wore something too fancy or showy. Maybe he would prefer his date would dress up like that too? 

"Hansol, you know what, I'll just keep it simple."

"Whatever..." he threw the shirt with palm trees back into the wardrobe. 

"How about..." Joshua pulled out a claret red t-shirt and a light blue jeans and held them against his body. 

"Simple and cool" Hansol nodded. "Oh, wait my phone's ringing, who the fuck is this?" 

"Hello?" 

"Hello Hansol, it's Jihoon."

"Yes?" 

"Seungkwan was worried about you so i thought i should check on you" 

"Can't he call me himself? He does have a phone." Hansol's voice was getting serious and deeper 

"He doesn't want to because you won't stop being an ass" 

"Excuse me? Do you even know what happened between us two? Why are you involved in this? I know Seungkwan can't do shit without asking his friends" Joshua was scared by how Hansol's hands turned into fists. 

"Then you don't know him at all."

"Yeah, tell me about my best friend of years when you don't know how much he has changed!" Hansol was now shouting, Joshua held his shoulders and tried to calm him down.

"Hansol, both of you should stop drowning into your feelings and talk--" 

"Then tell your friend to call me himself!" Hansol shouted and hung up, his hands were shaking with anger when Jeonghan entered the room

"What the fuck is going on in here?" he said, rubbing his eye

"Jeonghan, give us some time" Joshua closed the door and made Vernon sit down on the bed. 

"He threw the whole friendship away, Josh" Hansol said emotionlessly. 

"You two will be through that, give it time." he rubbed Hansol's back 

"Why do I care?" Hansol sighed. 

Minghao had been asking Junhui about Mingyu all day but Junhui didn't want to talk about him. 

"Ask Joshua to find him through Wonwoo."

"No, it wasn't supposed to happen. We're not even a thing. I'm definitely among the dozens of people he made out with." Junhui's voice started to crack. 

"Shut up, he can't say no to your charms." 

"I don't care about what he thinks. It was a mistake and he doesn't even seem like the serious type. Also, say we loved each other, what would've happened when I go back to China? I don't think he'd be up for that kind of long term relationship." Junhui ran his fingers through his hair. 

"Just give him a chance, you can discuss that later."

"I don't want to!" 

At that moment, Junhui's alarm went off. He didn't remember setting up an alarm so he looked at his phone screen. 

"Loik sr ypur nptes" 

An attempted note in English? 

"What does this even say?" Junhui frowned "Look at your notes?" 

"Looks like it"

Junhui opened the notes on his phone and he found something written in Korean. It was difficult for him to understand Korean already and the fact that it was a drunken text made it even harder. He tried to read it with Minghao and they finally found out what it said

"*Love letter emoji*

Hi Junhui, i don't know how to say this but I really enjoyed hanging out with you. If you also did, I saved my number on your phone as "Gyu", send me a text so we can talk.

-Mingyu"

"Maaan, this was so smooth" Minghao said in English. 

"Too bad they're all getting deleted!"

Minghao held Junhui's arm "Just give him a chance" 

"Well, no" The door bell suddenly rang and Junhui got up to answer the door. 

Minghao took the chance and sent himself the note as an email and took a photo of it. Just as he was about to get Mingyu's number, he heard Junhui coming in the room so he just removed any traces of what he did. Hansol was with Junhui. 

"I have to do something, hold on Hansol" Minghao could sense him deleting Mingyu's note and number. They then went to the kitchen and prepared some coffee. 

"I'm not drinking anything but tea, my stomach is killing me" Junhui groaned, rubbing his abdomen. 

"Same but I will drink coffee anyway." Hansol shrugged and Minghao nodded, he was careful with drinking so it wasn't a problem. 

"I just want to forget last night" Junhui sat down after grabbing a cup of tea. 

"Same... I just want to move out of my house" Hansol exhaled, stirring his coffee. 

"Is it that bad?" 

"I can't take it anymore, he chooses those pricks over his friend of years. I feel so fucking alone sometimes" He took a deep breath "I'm so thankful for you guys, we've known each other for only a few days but i feel like it's been forever. Ugh, sorry for being sappy."

Minghao grabbed Hansol's hand. "It's okay, you're just very overwhelmed. I hope you can fix the things because you seem so stressed out."

"I don't know, he's just so annoying and plays the victim even though I'm the one who gets hurt."

"You will have to talk to him eventually, you guys need to save your friendship. From what I've seen so far, you both care about each other." Junhui said.

"I hope he does care about me." Hansol was tapping his fingers on the table."

Joshua was pacing up and down in the house after Hansol left. He was so stressed as this was going to be his first date with Wonwoo. Seungcheol shouted at him from his room, "Joshua, if you won't stop, I will come over and make you sit."

"I'm coming in"

Seungcheol started laughing when he saw Joshua's face. "You're about to cry, sorry for laughing."

"Hey!" Joshua jokingly punched his housemate's arm.

"Also, I thought your Wonwoo was another Wonwoo."

"W-what do you mean?" Joshua frowned

"I know your Wonwoo from the underground rap battles I've watched."

Joshua was surprised to hear that even though he knew Wonwoo enjoyed rap music. He didn't know he rapped as well as listening.

"He's a really good rapper, I do some stuff myself but he's one of the best ones around if not the best."

It wasn't possible for Joshua to fall for this boy more, he was into many things and yet he was humble.

"Hey let me see the date combination." Jeonghan knocked the door and came in.

"Looks great" He gussied Joshua up "Wonwoo is one lucky man."

"I am lucky indeed, did you know he's a rapper?"

"No way, he's the Wonwoo Seungcheol knows?"

They nodded in unision. 

Time went by fast and it was time for Joshua to leave.

"I think I'm going to shit in my pants."

"You will be fine, relax." Jeonghan squeezed his shoulders.

As Joshua was on his way to the café, thousands of thoughts crossed his mind. What if he wasn't good enough to be liked by Wonwoo? What if he was going to embarrass himself? He didn't want his disappointments to repeat themselves. He wasn't good enough for his ex, though their relationship was toxic from the beginning. As one of his friends, well, someone he thought that was a friend in highschool said, Joshua's life was full of disappointments.

When he arrived at the café, he looked around and saw Wonwoo reading a book. He approached the table and Wonwoo got up, they hugged.

"How have you been?" Joshua asked

"Hungry, but other than that, I'm alright."

"Oh my God, sorry for making you wait, I'm gonna call a waiter. Hey, excuse me!"

"It's alright, my shift ended a bit early and I have been here for ten minutes." Wonwoo smiled. The waiter came by and they ordered a salad and a toast and a latte for Wonwoo, Joshua just wanted to drink dark coffee.

"How did you enjoy the party?" 

Wonwoo looked up, "I had a great time catching up with people."

Joshua smiled, "Tell me about your life, we didn't get to chat much" 

Wonwoo took a deep breath and looked away, "I'm studying literature, going to be a teacher. I enjoy reading worldwide classics mostly." he awkwardly laughed 

"What about your family? Are you from Seoul?" 

He wish he didn't ask about that because Wonwoo's smile faded quickly, "I'm from Changwon. I have a brother and two sisters, I'm the oldest." 

"Do you visit Changwon often?" 

"No" 

Joshua sensed that Wonwoo didn't want to talk about his family so he briefly explained his life in LA. 

"Have you ever been to the States?" he asked

"No, I haven't been abroad."

"Maybe one day, I can show you around, especially if you ever come to LA" 

Their orders arrived and Wonwoo started munching on his food. Joshua enjoyed his coffee, even though they just talked about things in general, he was glad to be with Wonwoo. 

After chatting, they went to pat the cats since it was a cat café. 

"Cats make me happy. Do you like cats or dogs more?" Wonwoo asked

"I have a dog back home so I'll say dogs." 

They giggled and played with cats silently. A kitten fell asleep on Wonwoo's lap and Joshua massaged the kitten. 

After that, they played arcade. It was so much fun but Joshua absolutely hated losing, which he did. 

"Next time you might win!" So, there was going to be a next time. Joshua realized that both of them had been more relaxed than they were at the party. 

Wonwoo did something different and talked about his notebook. He never mentioned it to anyone before. 

"I write stuff there, from the books or whatever is on my mind when I'm inspired." 

"That's so cool! Are you going to write anything today?" 

"Yes, because I'm inspired right now." 

Joshua couldn't hide his smile. Wonwoo never felt this way before. Wonwoo was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this sucked, I promise it will get better, we will see more of romantic Joshua!


	6. Chapter 6

A week passed and everything seemed to settle down, without actually doing so.

Hansol went back to his house and agreed to not interfere each other's lives with Seungkwan. That was for their own good, being best friends harmed them, it was better to stay as housemates. There was apparently no hard feelings, they even shared their food at dinners. Hansol wondered if Seungkwan felt bad about it but he decided not to think on that.

Junhui was insistent on not talking to Mingyu again, despite his friends' constant pressure.

"Just get to know him." Hansol suggested at lunch.

"He's right, there's no harm in getting to know each other." Joshua nodded.

"Well," Junhui took a deep breath "I don't want to."

"We want the best for you" Minghao protested. 

"I don't think so because I'm getting headaches right now." Junhui took a huge gulp from his water. 

A few moments later, Mingyu suddenly appeared at their table, with Wonwoo by his side, which made Joshua's heartbeat go fast. 

"Hi!" Mingyu said nervously

"Hello" The three of them but Junhui replied. 

"How are you guys?" 

"We're doing okay, the classes started getting intense but other than that, we're doing alright. What about you?" Joshua replied with a smile on his face. 

"Same, we're doing alright, eh?" Mingyu looked at Wonwoo and he nodded. 

"Junhui, you've got my message?" His voice was now trembling. He regretted to ask this question in front of everyone but he couldn't find Junhui alone. 

"Yes, I did." he replied without looking at Mingyu. 

"So you have my number? You know you can text me anytime."

"I actually don't have your number now." Junhui said, pursing his lips. 

Mingyu didn't expect this answer, he had never been rejected but he was the one to reject. It was a slap of reality and he felt a lump in his throat. 

"A-alright i-i-if you want, you can ask me." He wanted to get lost, luckily Wonwoo was there. 

"We better get going, see you later guys!" They greeted each other and he smiled at Joshua, that smile could keep Joshua going for another week. 

"Jun, i can't believe you!" Minghao was disappointed. 

Junhui didn't respond to his friend and kept on eating his salad. 

"It won't hurt to know someone" Hansol shrugged, Junhui still didn't respond. 

"I don't know why you're so stubborn about this." Joshua calmly said. 

Junhui stopped eating, "Because..." he took another sip from his water "Because i don't want to start something that won't get serious." 

"How do you know it won't?" Minghao genuinely got annoyed at his friend. 

"Please guys, please don't talk to me about this." Junhui said coldly, the atmosphere changed all of a sudden and Joshua felt like he had to interrupt. 

"Okay for now we're letting you be, I see where you're coming from but we want the best for you. Let's talk about something else then?"

They all agreed to that, although Minghao and Hansol were quite not willing. 

Meanwhile, Mingyu was about to cry. No one ever made him feel humiliated and he couldn't believe he fell for someone after a while only to get rejected. 

" He fucking hates my guts, Won." 

"Welcome to our life." Wonwoo patted his back. 

"Whose life?" Mingyu frowned.

"You know, normal people's." 

"Thank you for calling me abnormal as if my day wasn't bad enough!" 

"I didn't mean that Mingyu, it's just...." He squinted and tried to find the right words, anything could hurt the younger one at this point "He might be intimidated, he might feel awkward or..." He was contemplating whether to say that or not but he went for it "Or he might be thinking you're pretentious." 

Mingyu's eyes widened with the last sentence, he never thought he looked pretentious or anything, nor did he ever intend to. 

"I-I'm pretentious?" he pointed to himself 

"No, no, it's not that you are, it just how people perceive it when they first meet you."

"Why would they think that?" Mingyu was about to cry, Wonwoo could see tears rimming in his eyes. 

"You're good looking, you have many people around you, you're confident..." 

"Are these bad?" 

Mingyu didn't understand. Wonwoo didn't expect him to. Good thing he doesn't know about what the underground rappers think, Wonwoo thought. They would make fun of him for being a pretty boy and his skills, even though Mingyu was actually not bad at rapping, if not good. He had many people talking behind his back and even though Wonwoo was a friend, he couldn't talk back at them. He felt like a bad friend. He also felt bad for Mingyu. The boy had so many fake people around him and had no idea about it. 

"It's not that Gyu. We'll talk about that later. Now go wash your face and go to your class." 

Mingyu did as he was told. He revised his notes for differential equations, most of them were from girls in the class. He listened to the class well and he called off all his plans for the day, he studied instead. That was Mingyu's way of dealing with things, to work on something instead. He took his pile of rap verses and wrote some stuff, he didn't like how they looked and he sighed, however he didn't dispose the papers. 

Joshua came back home and found Jeonghan sitting on the couch, it was a Thursday and he didn't come home last night. 

"Where'd you been?" he shouted as he was putting off his shoes

"I went home, my phone died on the way there sk I forgot to text to the groupchat." 

"Is everything okay?" 

"Yeah, my grandparents were there so i paid a visit." Jeonghan put his hair in a bun. "Let me tell you something odd. I think my sister's friend is intimidated of me. I overheard them talking about Jeongsoon's friend having a crush on a boy in their class. When she saw me, she immediately stopped talking." 

"Isn't that normal?" 

"Not like that, she avoids eye contact with me. I think that's because I shouted at Jeongsoon once when Sohee, her friend, was at our house. I feel bad because she's such a sweet person, i see her as a sister even though we haven't talked a lot."

"Treat them both with ice cream next time you're home." 

"Good idea" Jeonghan nodded. 

A few days passed and it was Sunday. The weather got quite chilly and rainy so Joshua thought it would be a good idea to spend his time at home, making coffee and studying. He saw his housemates playing a football game on Playstation, again. 

"Don't you guys have classes to study for?"

"I have a quiz tomorrow." Seungcheol said without looking away from the screen. 

"You know that and you don't study? Jeonghan, I'm sure you have a lot to catch on."

"Oh God, my mom just talked to me this morning, it's enough for me." Jeonghan groaned.

"Apparently not enough for you to get in action." Joshua walked towards the television and the boys both started cursing and promising they'd revise once they were done with the game. 

Joshua went to the kitchen and prepared coffee for his friends, they sat down and studied for a few hours. 

" If i become an honor student, it's on Joshua." Seungcheol laughed. 

Joshua was always a good student. His life in LA included studying even when he was dating. He took pride in being academically successful. At some point he thought his academic success and girlfriend were the only things he had. After breaking up with her, he gave his all to studying to the point where he was over stressed so he needed a change, which led him to apply for an exchange program. 

They spent the rest of their day playing Playstation. Joshua cooked ramen for dinner, while they were eating, Jeonghan stared at him and raised his eyebrows. 

"So... I see you're getting texts. Who are they from? Wonwoo?" 

"No, we don't talk often nowadays." He felt bad while saying this because that wasn't supposed to happen. He didn't want to lose contact with him. 

"What? I can't allow this." Jeonghan quickly got the hold of Joshua's phone and viewed the chatbox with Wonwoo. Joshua tried to get his phone back but Jeonghan pushed him away and Seungcheol started laughing. 

Right at that moment, a faint voice was heard from the phone.

"Jeonghan hyung? Isn't this Joshua hyung's phone?" That was Wonwoo's voice. While fighting, they accidentally video called Wonwoo, Joshua wanted to hide.

"Yeah we were just doing something, i have no idea how this happened." he tried to make Wonwoo believe it, which was not likely.

Joshua pulled his phone away from Jeonghan's hands.

"Sorry Wonwoo, we were just... Anyways, how are you?"

 

He shouldn't have asked that. He was visibly not okay. Joshua had no idea why Wonwoo answered the video call. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was messy and his cheeks were either tear or sweat stained. Joshua wanted the world to stop.

" I'm okay. " Wonwoo replied

"Hey, how about i come over there?" Joshua suddenly suggested

"You don't have to hyung, it's raining a lot. I just woke up so it's fine." wonwoo had no idea why he had to explain himself.

"I'll be there in an hour. Send me your location."

They hung up and Joshua immediately walked to his room. Seungcheol and Jeonghan were surprised by this sudden change.

"Shua, it's raining a lot!" Seungcheol shouted from the kitchen. 

"And i don't care!"

"Also you haven't even finished your ramen!" Jeonghan was yelling this time. 

"Eat it then!"

Joshua took a dark blue pullover from his wardrobe and wore black jeans under. He took his raincoat and wore his boots.

Someone should've either been in a rush or been crazy to go out in this rain. Joshua was both.

He ran to the bus station and waited for the bus that went near Wonwoo's place and he was already soaked.

The bus took 10 minutes to come and it took him 15 minutes to go to the stop near Wonwoo. He was completely wet when he was finally inside. Wonwoo couldn't help laughing and seeing him laugh made Joshua smile, so they started laughing together.

"I'm sorry." Wonwoo put his hands on his face. "Let me give you some dry clothes."

He came back with comfortable pajamas. Joshua wore them and blow dried his hair. Wonwoo put Joshua's wet clothes in the dryer.

"Hyung, are you hungry?"

"I just had some ramen."

Wonwoo prepared some snacks for them and grabbed two cans of Cola. Joshua smiled at the sight of his crush working for them to spend time together.

"So we sit here?"

"No..." Wonwoo grabbed the snacks and gestured the right direction with his head. "I have a cellar kind of place. You can see the sky from there though."

They walked to Wonwoo's cellar and sat down on the cushions.

"Wonwoo..." Joshua sighed "Were you really okay?"

Wonwoo's smile faded but he didn't seem offended from the question.

"Not quite. I was napping and woke up from a bad dream." He was gazing at the sky.

"I see." Joshua nodded. "They're just things in your brain. You need to fix that."

"I wish it was easy." Wonwoo chucked.

"You can always share it with me."

Wonwoo's voice was sad and deeper. "Family stuff. I want the best for my siblings. I feel like I'm never good enough. I never had it easy, I'm trying to find some way to get out of this but i will never."

"That's not true, you did your best."

"I don't know. Nobody ever told me that. Mom doesn't even try. It's like my brother looks after himself and our sisters. Our stepdad is a pain in the ass and treats mom like shit. I have to work and I have to graduate just in time. I am a coward so i didn't have the guts to stay in Changwon, I had to get away."

"You're not a coward. Shit happens, Wonwoo, you did better than you think. You raised them to be strong-"

"I didn't. Life did."

"Do you have other family members to help you?" 

Wonwoo started laughing, "I don't know my father, hyung. He left when i was a year old. My mom's extended family aren't doing much better and they ignore her." 

"Can I hug you?" 

Wonwoo was surprised, he didn't expect that. No one ever asked him such question. He slowly leaned towards the younger and they cuddled up. 

"Thank you." he smiled "Hyung, I shouldn't have drank Cola. I told you my stomach is weak." 

Joshua smiled at him, "My mom has soothing recipes." 

"Gonna keep that in mind. Now I'll down the rest of the Cola though, I hate wasting things. We drink for what?" 

Joshua gazed at the sky for a while, "The clouds?" 

Wonwoo smiled at the suggestion 

"To the clouds" they said in unision. 

"Hyung, stay here tonight." 

Joshua had to go home in the morning to grab his stuff but he didn't turn the offer down. They kept chatting about everything and it was past 1 am when they went sleeping. 

Wonwoo took his notebook out. 

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation”

-Oscar Wilde

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter! We'll slowly get to know the members better.
> 
> By the way, Seunghee in this fic is CLC's Seunghee and Sohee is Elris' Sohee. I ult CLC and stan Elris so i wanted to include some members. Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Days were passing and Joshua was in love but he wasn't the only one. At least Joshua would get a reaction from who he loved, unlike Mingyu.

"Hyung, I will need some advice, can we meet up tomorrow after your shift?" Mingyu said hopelessly on phone.

"I will already meet someone else then" Wonwoo replied

"Huh? You never met up with people, what's up with this busy schedule these days?" There was silence on the line for a few seconds. "You seem to be getting along with this American guy"

"Mingyu-"

"Isn't it him?" Mingyu sighed, "I mean I'm happy you're having a good time with somebody else but... I miss and need hyung"

"It is him but i wouldn't leave my friends for..." he stopped, "For a new friend."

"Okay then, is night okay?"

Wonwoo sighed, "I am busy. How about Sunday?"

He could imagine Mingyu poofing his cheeks "Okay, we will talk again tomorrow."

Joshua was excited about his date with Wonwoo the next day, although they never labeled them as dates. They started meeting frequently, learning more and more about each other and sharing interests. Joshua was never interested in reading but he loved the books that he borrowed from Wonwoo and he ended up asking for more. Wonwoo started learning guitar from Joshua and next thing was that he rapped along to Joshua's strumming. Seungcheol invited himself to one of their dates at their house despite Jeonghan telling him not to. They ate popcorn and watched one of Joshua's American sitcoms. As days passed, Wonwoo started picking up some English words both from the sitcoms they watched together, Joshua's SNS and when Joshua spoke English with Hansol, Minghao and Junhui or his family. He even made friends with Joshua's friend group and they went eating ice cream although it was freezing outside. 

Their date was on a cold Saturday, it was early December and rain was spreading here and there. Joshua felt like hanging out indoors but since they wanted to sit by Han river so long, he didn't say anything about it.  

"You're crazy Joshua, tsk tsk" Seungcheol sighed and Jeonghan started laughing, 

"I think we already sorted that out and accepted he's indeed crazy." 

Joshua smiled at his friends nervously. He had a plan in his mind for that day and it was to confess to Wonwoo. They had already built a strong friendship until then and Joshua didn't want this bond to break but he couldn't help wanting to be more than friends with him. 

"Guys, I'm nervous. I think I'll ruin my pants." 

"How many times have you said that Josh?" Jeonghan raised an eyebrow

"But literally... It's an important day....I think... I'll confess to him" 

Seungcheol hugged Joshua,

"He likes you and cares about you, it will be fine."

"But what if-"

"Time will show it" Jeonghan patted his back.

Joshua wore his jeans and pink sweater. He had bought the pink sweater with their neighbor Yongguk's friend Youngjae. He became friends with Youngjae quickly because the boy was so outgoing and warm.

"I have the same sweater please buy this Joshua, it'll look amazing on you." Youngjae stomped and made a puppy face in the middle of the shop.

"But hyung, I usually wear dark stuff, will this look good on me?"

"Trust me and you can nag me anytime if you don't like it."

Joshua listened to Youngjae and bought the sweater and he was absolutely right because Joshua felt so good in it. 

"How do I look?" he asked Seungcheol and Jeonghan who were playing the football game on Playstation. 

"Perfect!" Seungcheol murmured and Jeonghan looked enthusiastic, "That Youngjae guy has a good taste." 

Joshua laughed, "I know, right?" 

He got out of their apartment. It was gloomy, kind of a day no one else would like to go out, let alone sitting by the river. Joshua was nonetheless excited for everything. He was even excited for the bus ride, even though he wanted to walk, it wasn't close by and the weather was too cold. 

Joshua listened to cheesy love songs on his way to the Han river. He was so excited about everything, he couldn't wait to just see Wonwoo and tell him that he's in love with him. Everyone in the bus seemed like they were forced to go out on this cold day but Joshua wanted this more than anything. The bus traveled around buildings and places and he was finally at the stop. He felt like his heart was about to escape his body and he was sweating even though it was freezing. 

"I will say it, I will say Wonwoo, i don't see you as a friend only, i want us to be more than that." he whispered to himself. "Ever since I saw you Wonwoo." he kept murmuring. He finally saw Wonwoo in the sight, he was already sitting by the river. He took a deep breath and walked towards Wonwoo. He heard someone approaching so he looked around and spotted Joshua. 

"Hey!" Joshua shouted

"Hello there" Wonwoo got up and hugged Joshua.

They sat down on one of the benches, there was nobody around. 

"I brought us some tea." Wonwoo smiled, showing his thermos. Joshua nodded enthusiastically and Wonwoo poured them tea. 

"Other people must be thinking that we're crazy" he continued. 

"Why?" Joshua asked, knowing the answer. 

"I mean, it's really cold." He took a sip from his tea and looked away "and if I saw someone doing this like a few months ago, I would've said they're crazy too." 

"What changed since then?" 

"I found a person that I would go out in the cold with." 

He blushed. 

They were sitting close. 

They looked at each other in the eyes. 

Their faces came closer. 

Joshua smiled. 

Wonwoo smiled back. 

They both looked away. 

"Are you writing to your notebook these days?" Joshua asked. 

Wonwoo wasn't looking at him, he smiled meekly and replied: "Yeah, my mind is occupied."

Joshua was afraid to ask with what his mind was occupied so he just smiled and nodded. There was a silence. They could hear and feel the wind blowing strongly. 

"It's getting really cold each second passing by." Wonwoo broke the silence and hissed loudly to express how cold he was feeling.

Suddenly, Joshua reached out to Wonwoo's hand and held it. Wonwoo didn't take back, he looked at Joshua and smiled, squeezing his hand. They stood like that without talking and just sipping their teas for another few minutes while still holding hands. It was now snowing, small flakes at first and bigger ones a few minutes later. The ground was already covered with a white thin blanket. 

"I only saw snow a few times before. You know, LA doesn't really get snow." Joshua started laughing. Wonwoo rubbed his thumb against Joshua's hand. 

"I'm glad you're experiencing it with me, hyung." 

This would seem grossly romantic to Joshua if it happened to anyone else but he just moved closer to Wonwoo and nuzzed his head into his neck. 

"I'm glad Won, I'm glad for everything that caused this moment." Joshua whispered and Wonwoo felt warmth against his neck, lifting Joshua's hand and pressing a kiss on it. 

All Joshua's worries went away at the very moment, it was just the feeling of desire to spend the rest of his life with this man. Before he could notice, Wonwoo realized the hot tears on his jawline. 

"Hyung? Is it all okay?" he was startled. He took Joshua's head in his hands. 

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, I'm indeed very happy and I had been waiting for this moment for so long. I'm sorry for ruining-" he let out a sob and Wonwoo caught his teardrops rolling down his cheeks. He pressed a kiss against the older one's temple. 

"Shhh, I know it hyung, I do know it well." He got the hold of his hand again and they kept on watching the river. 

After two hours when it was really hard for both of them to stay out anymore, they got up. 

"Let me take you to your home." Joshua said, affectionately. 

"I know the way to my home, hyung." Wonwoo started laughing. Joshua caught his hand. 

"Let me do so, I want to take my date to his home. I'm the older one." 

Wonwoo's eyes widened when he heard the word "date" that was actually what their meetings were all along and the things that happened today just confirmed that.

As much as both of them wanted to hold hands the way back home, they both refrained themselves and talked about upcoming exams. It was not too far from the riverside so in a short time, they arrived at Wonwoo's apartment.

"Hyung, will you really come upstairs?" Wonwoo was blushing

"Yes, I need to see it myself that you made it home safely." Joshua let out a laughter.

"Stay with me tonight." he held Joshua's index finger.

"Baby..." he had to pause because he couldn't believe he called the younger one his baby "I have to finish this project. And with you around, I don't think I'll be able to concentrate."

Wonwoo pouted while nodding and they went upstairs. Joshua felt strange that they held hands, snuggled and called each other sweet names during the day and still, nothing was official between them.

"Thank you for today, hyung. You were busy but you made time for me and stayed out in cold even though you're used to warm weather."

Joshua smiled and just crushed his lips on Wonwoo's, ruffling his curly hair with one hand. The younger one kissed back. This was the best kiss Joshua had ever had. He did make out before, he did have sex before, he did have multiple places on his body kissed but none of them felt like this. He felt a hot feeling going through every inch of his body.

"I'll see you next week." Joshua smiled, Wonwoo nodded, his right hand on his lips. He closed the door and his hand was still on his lips, standing against the door.

Joshua was no different, he walked down the stairs since the elevator was broken and he felt his phone vibrating. He quickly picked it up, hoping it was Wonwoo but he saw Hansol's name.

"Josh?" he sounded like he wasn't sure who he was talking to. 

"Yeah, listening."

"Can I stay at your place for the night?" his voice was shaky. 

"Yes sure but is something up?" Joshua asked, knowing the answer. 

"I don't want to be around Seungkwan right now." he paused "I'll be there in a few."

"Okay, I'm heading back too" he ended the call, taking faster steps to catch the bus to his home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the looong break! I wanted to continue this because I have lately found myself re-reading this fic. I hope you guys like it too, please let me know what you think.


	8. Not really a chapter

Uhhh sorry for another long wait

 

Anyways i really am getting back into this fic, right now I'm writing the new episode but not posting until I get my head around what i exactly want to write

 

I will just need some requests, so far I've put into a lot of twists and relationships out there, what would you like to know about?

I saw some readers waiting for updates on Jun and Mingyu which I will definitely consider!

 

It was like a nightmare because I had been in a reading and writing slump but I'm trying to get out of there. Also I have a toefl exam next month but I will still try to update as soon as possible.

Thanks for bearing with me, please comment your ideas or tweet/ dm me at @clcshua on Twitter!


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